Murder

7 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Murder \Mur"der\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Murdered}
     (m[^u]r"d[~e]rd); p. pr. & vb. n. {Murdering}.] [OE.
     mortheren, murtheren, AS. myr[eth]rian; akin to OHG.
     murdiren, Goth. ma['u]r[thorn]rjan. See {Murder}, n.]
     1. To kill with premediated malice; to kill (a human being)
        willfully, deliberately, and unlawfully. See {Murder}, n.


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     2. To destroy; to put an end to.
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              [Canst thou] murder thy breath in middle of a word?
                                                    --Shak.
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     3. To mutilate, spoil, or deform, as if with malice or
        cruelty; to mangle; as, to murder the king's English.
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     Syn: To kill; assassinate; slay. See {Kill}.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Murder \Mur"der\ (m[^u]r"d[~e]r), n. [OE. morder, morther, AS.
     mor[eth]or, fr. mor[eth] murder; akin to D. moord, OS.
     mor[eth], G., Dan., & Sw. mord, Icel. mor[eth], Goth.
     ma['u]r[thorn]r, OSlav. mr[=e]ti to die, Lith. mirti, W. marw
     dead, L. mors, mortis, death, mori, moriri, to die, Gr.
     broto`s (for mroto`s) mortal, 'a`mbrotos immortal, Skr. m[.r]
     to die, m[.r]ta death. [root]105. Cf. {Amaranth}, {Ambrosia},
     {Mortal}.]
     The offense of killing a human being with malice prepense or
     aforethought, express or implied; intentional and unlawful
     homicide. "Mordre will out." --Chaucer.
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           The killing of their children had, in the account of
           God, the guilt of murder, as the offering them to idols
           had the guilt of idolatry.               --Locke.
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           Slaughter grows murder when it goes too far. --Dryden.
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     Note: Murder in the second degree, in most jurisdictions, is
           a malicious homicide committed without a specific
           intention to take life. --Wharton.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  murder
       n : unlawful premeditated killing of a human being by a human
           being [syn: {slaying}, {execution}]
       v 1: kill intentionally and with premeditation; "The mafia boss
            ordered his enemies murdered" [syn: {slay}, {hit}, {dispatch},
             {bump off}, {polish off}, {remove}]
       2: alter so as to make unrecognizable; "The tourists murdered
          the French language" [syn: {mangle}, {mutilate}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  110 Moby Thesaurus words for "murder":
     abate, abolish, annihilate, asphyxiate, assassinate, assassination,
     be all thumbs, behead, blood, bloodshed, bloody murder, blot out,
     blunder, blunder away, blunder into, blunder on, blunder upon,
     boggle, botch, bumble, bump off, bumping-off, bungle, butcher,
     butchery, carnage, commit a gaffe, cool, decapitate, decimation,
     destroy, do in, dust off, electrocute, eliminate, elimination,
     eradicate, eradication, execute, exterminate, extermination,
     extinguish, faux pas, finish, flounder, foul play, fratricide,
     fumble, garrote, genocide, get rid of, guillotine, hang, homicide,
     ice, infanticide, kill, killing, knock off, lay low, liquidate,
     liquidation, lumber, lynch, mangle, manslaughter, mar, massacre,
     matricide, miscue, muddle, muff, murdering, mutilate, parricide,
     patricide, play havoc with, polish off, purge, purging, put away,
     put down, put to death, regicide, removal, remove, root out,
     rub out, ruin, scrag, slaughter, slay, slaying, slip, smother,
     snuff out, sororicide, spoil, strangle, stumble, thuggee, thuggery,
     thuggism, trip, uproot, uxoricide, waste, wipe out, wiping out,
     wreck
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Murder
     Wilful murder was distinguished from accidental homicide, and
     was invariably visited with capital punishment (Num. 35:16, 18,
     21, 31; Lev. 24:17). This law in its principle is founded on the
     fact of man's having been made in the likeness of God (Gen. 9:5,
     6; John 8:44; 1 John 3:12, 15). The Mosiac law prohibited any
     compensation for murder or the reprieve of the murderer (Ex.
     21:12, 14; Deut. 19:11, 13; 2 Sam. 17:25; 20:10). Two witnesses
     were required in any capital case (Num. 35:19-30; Deut.
     17:6-12). If the murderer could not be discovered, the city
     nearest the scene of the murder was required to make expiation
     for the crime committed (Deut. 21:1-9). These offences also were
     to be punished with death, (1) striking a parent; (2) cursing a
     parent; (3) kidnapping (Ex. 21:15-17; Deut. 27:16).
     

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  MURDER, crim. law. This, one of the most important crimes that can be 
  committed against individuals, has been variously defined. Hawkins defines 
  it to be the willful killing of any subject whatever, with malice 
  aforethought, whether the person slain shall be an Englishman or a 
  foreigner. B. 1, c. 13, s. 3. Russell says, murder is the killing of any 
  person under the king's peace, with malice prepense or aforethought, either 
  express or implied by law. 1 Rus. Cr. 421. And Sir Edward Coke, 3 Inst. 47, 
  defines or rather describes this offence to be, "when a person of sound 
  mind and discretion, unlawfully killeth any reasonable creature in being, 
  and under the king's peace, with malice aforethought either express or 
  implied." 
       2. This definition, which has been adopted by Blackstone, 4 Com. 195; 
  Chitty, 2 Cr. Law, 724; and others, has been severely and perhaps justly 
  criticised. What, it has been asked, are sound memory and understanding? 
  What has soundness of memory to do with the act; be it ever so imperfect, 
  how does it affect the guilt? If discretion is necessary, can the crime ever 
  be committed, for, is it not the highest indiscretion in a man to take the 
  life of another, and thereby expose his own? If the person killed be an 
  idiot or a new born infant, is he a reasonable creature? Who is in the 
  king's peace? What is malice aforethought? Can there be any malice 
  afterthought? Livingst. Syst. of Pen. Law; 186. 
       3. According to Coke's definition there must be, 1st. Sound mind and 
  memory in the agent. By this is understood there must be a will, (q.v.) and 
  legal discretion. (q.v.) 2. An actual killing, but it is not necessary that 
  it should be caused by direct violence; it is sufficient if the acts done 
  apparently endanger. life, and eventually fatal. Hawk. b. 1, c. 31, s. 4; 1 
  Hale, P. C. 431; 1 Ashm. R. 289; 9 Car. & Payne, 356; S. C. 38 E. C. L. R. 
  152; 2 Palm. 545. 3. The party killed must have been a reasonable being, 
  alive and in the king's peace. To constitute a birth, so as to make the 
  killing of a child murder, the whole body must be detached from that of the 
  mother; but if it has come wholly forth, but is still connected by the 
  umbilical chord, such killing will be murder. 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 1722, note. 
  Foeticide (q.v.) would not be such a killing; he must have been in rerum 
  natura. 4. Malice, either express or implied. It is this circumstance which 
  distinguishes murder from every description of homicide. Vide art. Malice. 
       4. In some of the states, by legislative enactments, murder has been 
  divided into degrees. In Pennsylvania, the act of April 22, 1794, 3 Smith's 
  Laws, 186, makes "all murder which shall be perpetrated by means of poison, 
  or by lying in wait, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate, and 
  premeditated killing, or which shall be committed in the perpetration or 
  attempt to perpetrate, any arson, rape, robbery, or burglary, shall be 
  deemed murder of the first degree; and all other kinds of murder shall be 
  deemed murder of the second degree; and the jury before whom any person 
  indicted for murder shall be tried, shall, if they find the person guilty 
  thereof, ascertain in their verdict, whether it be murder of the first or 
  second degree; but if such person shall be convicted by confession, the 
  court shall proceed by examination of witnesses, to determine the degree of 
  the crime, and give sentence accordingly. Many decisions have been made 
  under this act to which the reader is referred: see Whart. Dig. Criminal 
  Law, h.t. 
       5. The legislature of Tennessee has adopted the same distinction in the 
  very words of the act of Pennsylvania just cited. Act of 1829, 1 Term. Laws, 
  Dig. 244. Vide 3 Yerg. R. 283; 5 Yerg. R. 340. 
       6. Virginia has adopted the same distinction. 6 Rand. R. 721. Vide, 
  generally, Bac. Ab. h.t.; 15 Vin. Ab. 500; Com. Dig. Justices, M 1, 2; 
  Dane's Ab. Index, h.t.; Hawk. Index, h.t.; 1 Russ. Cr. b. 3, c. 1; Rosc. 
  Cr. Ev. h.t. Hale, P. C. Index, h.t.; 4 Bl. Com. 195; 2 Swift's Syst. 
  Index, h.t.; 2 Swift's Dig. Index, h.t.; American Digests, h.t.; 
  Wheeler's C. C. Index, h.t.; Stark. Ev. Index, h.t.; Chit. Cr. Law, Index, 
  h.t.; New York Rev. Stat. part 4, c. 1, t. 1 and 2. 
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  MURDER, pleadings. In an indictment for murder, it must be charged that the 
  prisoner "did kill and murder" the deceased, and unless the word murder be 
  introduced into the charge, the indictment will be taken to charge 
  manslaughter only. Foster, 424; Yelv. 205; 1 Chit. Cr. Law, *243, and the 
  authorities and cases there cited.